Whole Wheat Pizzette

We love pizza in my house. I make many different versions of pizza. However, pizza as a meal, even when it is whole wheat, isn’t the healthiest food. I make small pizzette instead of the familiar family sized pizza. If you aren’t familiar with pizzette, they are in essence appetizer-sized pizzas.

This is my standard whole wheat pizza dough, only the cooked size and cooking temperature are reduced. This recipe makes a lot of pizzette. They can be stored in Ziploc bags in the freezer for a month or more, until needed.

Whole Wheat Pizzette Dough
Makes approximately 60 pizzette

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups warm water (105 - 110 degrees)
2 1/4 teaspoons active yeast
1/2 teaspoon agave or sugar
4 cups of whole wheat flour or 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of sprouted whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
Optional: 2 teaspoons dried thyme or oregano, or up to 1/4 cup of minced olives or finely chopped sun dried tomatoes

Directions:

Combine water, yeast and sweetener and allow to stand until yeast has bloomed (a foam has formed on the top of the water). This means the yeast is alive.

Add remaining ingredients and stir and knead to thoroughly combine. Add the optional dried herbs before you begin to knead, if using. If you keep your flour in the freezer you may need to add a little additional water to moisten all the dry ingredients. If using the optional olives or tomatoes mix those in at the end of the kneading process and mix evenly into the dough.

Move the dough to a greased bowl. Lightly grease the top of the dough. Cover the dough with a damp towel or plastic film and move to a draft free place to double in size. I find the microwave to be a great place to store the dough while it rises, which normally takes between 1 and 1 and 1/2 hours.

Once the dough has doubled in size it needs to be punched down.

Preheat your oven, and pizza stone, to 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Pinch off a ball of dough about the size of a golf ball and roll it out as thinly as you can, it should be approximately 1/8 of an inch think. Cut circles of dough using your largest biscuit cutter (mine was 3 5/8 inch). Dust the circles of dough with corn meal and place them on a piece of aluminum foil with the corn meal on the bottom.

The dough will rise and become thicker as it cooks. When the oven is thoroughly preheated (I preheat for 30 minutes) move the crust, without the toppings, to the pizza stone and cook for at 3 minutes. You want the dough to be cooked on the outside but not turning brown. Now you can top your pizza as you like and return to the oven for 3 or 4 minutes to warm all the toppings and toast the bottom of the dough.

Nutritional Information (per pizzette):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 34.79
Calories From Fat (14%)- 4.72
Total Fat - 0.54g
Saturated Fat - 0.08g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 16.13mg
Potassium - 12.06mg
Total Carbohydrates - 6.43g
Fiber - 0.26g
Sugar - 0.02g
Protein - 0.92g

Comments:

I have been making this basic whole wheat bread dough for a number of years. This is my go to recipe when I need a quick flat bread or pizza. The finished dough has a nice "wheaty" flavor. It is important to top your pizzette with very flavorful toppings so that the wheat flavor does not overpower the finished pizzette. Over the next few weeks I will be sharing different topping recipes for the pizzette.